jdev
It is with great pride and yet a humble spirit that I present to you the jdev "All Is Well!" tarot spread (but not without some educational bits first)!
As you may know, I am Hindu. I love to combine things I love, which leads to me incorporating my spirituality and the cards. I was given (read: I'm not smart enough to come up with these things so God knocks me upside the head) last night to create a spread using the ancient svastika. The svastika goes back to Vedic times and even predates the ancient Egyptian Ankh. It has been and remains a loved symbol of well-being and prosperity for Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and Native Americans. Not being able to verbalize as concisely and eloquently as scholars on the svastika, I give you the article below.
In Sanskrit, the proper spelling of the word swastika is svastika. Sanskrit has no 'w'. Literally, the word svastika is a statement of affirmation, "It is!" "Life is good!" "There is value" "There is meaning!" Svastika is a term that affirms the positive values of life. The word is made of su + as. "As" is the root of the copular verb "to be" of which the third person singular is, "asti," "it is." Su is a prefix used in Sanskrit to intensify meaning in a positive way, thus su+asti means literally, "it really is!" When combined, the 'u' changes into a 'v' thus giving the form svasti. The ending 'ka' makes this verbal form into a noun. This is the linguistic morphology of the word, svastika.
The svastika (from the Sanskrit svastika, "all is well") is a cross with four arms of equal length, with the ends of each arm bent at a right angle. Sometimes dots are added between each arm. The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been found worldwide, but it is especially common in India. Its name comes the Sanskrit words svasti (sv = well; asti = is), meaning good fortune, luck and well-being. The svastika is most commonly used as a charm to bring good fortune (in which case the arms are bent clockwise), but it has a variety of religious meanings as well.
The right-hand svastika is one of the 108 symbols of the god Vishnu as well as a symbol of the sun and of the sun god Surya. The symbol imitates in the rotation of its arms the course taken daily by the sun, which appears in the Northern Hemisphere to pass from east, then south, to west. (It is also a symbol of the sun among Native Americans.)
The left-hand svastika (called a sauvastika) usually represents the terrifying goddess Kali, night and magic. However, this form of the swastika is not "evil" and it is the form most commonly used in Buddhism.
The auspicious symbol of the svastika is very commonly used in Hindu art, architecture and decoration. It can be seen on temples, houses, doorways, clothing, cars, and even cakes. It is usually a major part of the decoration for festivals and special ceremonies like weddings.
Sources
- John Bowker, ed., Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions(2000).
- "swastika." Encyclopædia Britannica (2007). Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- Swastika - Wikipedia (January 2007)
www.religionfacts.com
www.sanskrit.org
[size=+1] The Spread![/size]
It turns out that I subconsciously chose to to use the left-handed svastika! It makes sense as the left side is associated with heart and the feminine, and also is associated with one of my ishta devatas (beloved deities) Kali. Kali only terrifies those who don't understand her (as does the svastika). Kali is usually depicted holding a man's severed head, looking crazy and bloodthirsty. The cutting off of the head represents the removal of the ego, which Hindus believe is all that keeps us from Enlightenment (all karma and adharmic deeds are a result of the selfish ego).
This spread came to me last night. It was only a matter of minutes before I had it worked out. The spread is pretty large (17 cards) and covers all aspects of life (except finance) and will take time and energy to read. It is easily adaptable to include finances (an important query for many querents, but not so much for me) or any other subjects you or your querent wish to cover. The spread starts with the "core" cards and expands from there. At the center, you have The Self. Surrounding, you have heart (affairs of the heart), spirit, feeling, and mind. From there the spread beautifully fans out to complete the svastika by adding three cards to each "core category". I can explain it in words, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand of them, so please refer to the spread diagram I have attached.
I will clearly define in this post the three positions for each core value. We'll take The Heart. You have The Heart and three cards that address it. They are: What You See; What You Don't see; Making All Well. This is pretty self-explanatory except for the last one (Making All Well). Its position bridges the gap between what you see about your affairs of the heart and what you don't see, and thusly makes it all well.
It was very difficult to do our traditional AT spread diagram, so I made a graphic in Photoshop that I have attached below. I have also attached photos of what an unadulterated svastika looks like and how beautiful and well loved a symbol it is in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions.
I will post a sample reading once I read with this spread. I do not want to read for myself with it, as I know me too well and may be biased as to the reading. I will post for an exchange for feedback in the reading exchange and then with the querent's permission I will post the reading here to let you see its efficacy and how it works (we shall all see!).
[size=+1]SAMPLE READING, SHARED WITH THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF KITTYSASHIMI. [/size]
The Deck: World Spirit
Your Cards:
1. Two of Cups, Rx
2. Sage of Swords (King)
3. Three of Cups Rx
4. Nine of Swords
5. The Emperor Rx
6. The Sun
7. Five of Cups
8. Sybil of Swords, Rx (Queen)
9. Sybil of Wands (Queen)
10. The Magician
11. Four of Cups, Rx
12. Seven of Swords
13. The Chariot
14. The Hermit
15. Ace of Pentacles
16. Three of Pentacles
17. Five of Wands
1. The Self - This is a snapshot of how you are feeling right now about yourself as a whole person, the entire package. The card tells me that things aren't as happy as they could be. You aren't as whole a being as you wish to be. I feel that you may be relying on someone else to "complete" you.
2. The Heart - The Sage of Swords tells me that your partner is very intelligent and a thinker. He balances out your strong emotions. I feel he may be a bit macabre, a bit dark. That's not a bad thing. He definitely has your heart on a string (you'll forgive me but the card shows the king's sword penetrating a yoni shaped wreath) and is a good lover. He again, I feel is dark and swarthy (physically, this time) and may have a propensity to grow beards?
3. Spiritual matters are not receiving the love and care they deserve. Maybe you were disillusioned and chose to distance yourself from the path you were on for a while. You still love and care for it, but it's much less than what you thought you did in the past. I see a woman trying to bring you back to a spiritual path but you are a bit resistant right now.
4. Emotionally, you're sad right now. All the "core" cards (cards 1-5) are *screaming* this at me. Not mope around crying all the time said, but you're longing. You're longing for the fulfillment of your idea of what your life should be. Your emotions are kind of running the gamut. From highs to lows and no plateaus. If the nine of swords is any indication of the state of affairs right now, you're in a valley.
5. Ha! So funny to me (not ha-ha) that the Emperor - the epitome of intellect and wisdom in the cards shows up in your Intellect position. The cards amaze me. The Emperor is reversed, telling me that matters of intellect (your day to day job, paying the bills, shopping for groceries, the "logistics" of life) are not receiving your full attention.
These have been the core cards, the cards that should tell me or any reader of the spread what your life looks like this very minute in time. A snapshot, if you will. Now for the details of each.
THE MIND
6. Mind - What you see - The Sun tells me you only see or are concentrating only on the bright shiny happy things that are fun to deal with in "logistical" life.
7. Mind - What you don't see - Five of Cups tells me that what you don't see is that if you don't stop just handling what you don't "mind" doing or like doing, that you're going to regret it. Things will have a snowball effect what was once a little issue will be compounded and rolled up into others and before you know it an avalanche of mundane worldly tasks overwhelms you and demands 100% of your waking hours to clear up.
8. How to bridge the two (what you see and don't see) and make all well is very clear to me - there is a woman in your life that is very precise, analytical, and she is very exacting. It may be your mother - it is definitely an older woman. Ask her for her help - she won't coddle you and will be "Look, Kittysashimi, you need to do laundry on this day, get the toilet scrubbed on this one, while the dishwasher is running you can take out the trash, etc., etc., ad infinitium.
FEELING
9. I believe you are a very emotional person, KittySashimi. You see clearly that you have passion, drive, ambition, and energy. The Sybil of Wands is *you*, not another woman in your life. You are one to look at your life through the lens of emotion. In the World Spirit card the Queen is holding her torch and looking at its flame with great admiration and love.
10. The Magician tells me that you don't see that you can balance out your state of being by making use of all the tools that life offers and that you definitely have at your disposal. I like a definition I read by Rachel Pollack - in the traditional RWS card he is standing in flowers reminding us that emotion needs to be grounded in physical reality to get any meaning from it.
11. Making it all well - The four of cups is reversed. This tells me that you definitely need to put to use those other tools I mentioned (intellect, heart, spirituality) to balance out your strong Fire Energy. It also tells me that you have the enthusiasm and spirit to do just that!
SPIRIT
12. What you see clearly is that your idea of a spiritual path or religious institution has crumbled to bits and you are slowly picking up the pieces of that and putting things back together. The WS Seven of Swords is particularly cold, dark, and sombre. You're not feeling a lot of love right now where spiritual matters are concerned.
13. What you don't see is that you have a conscious choice to remain in the state you're in or pick up what you liked about the path you were on and discard the others and build upon that. The WS Chariot is especially happy, the Charioteer is smiling broadly, he is a happy man, and the zebras at the reins are even looking at each other and smiling. I think you are not seeing the good things that are buried underneath your disappointment and disillusionment. Look closely, they are there.
14. OH THE CARDS! They AMAZE ME. Have I said that? To have The Hermit fall in the position of the way to make all well is simply divine! What it is telling me is that you need to retreat into yourself and think about spiritual matters. Don't look outside for any help in this quest, all the answers and the key to your happiness in this part of your life reside in you. You need to take time and really think things over about whatever the issue was that happened. Pull the parts that brought you joy and keep them, you can discard the rest. You may be having the notion that with spirituality, it's "all or nothing". This is simply not the case.
HEART
15. What you see clearly in affairs of the heart I am unsure of. I have to be honest with you. Aces are tough for this reader. Yeah, yeah, we all know they mean a new beginning, but how? What you see clearly is that each day is a new day for affairs of the heart. A time to start over, or it may signify that each day brings the blossoming of "new" love for you. Maybe each day with your partner is like a new day?
16. What you don't see is that love and affairs of the heart take work. They are a work in progress. They take as much intellect, spirit, and spirituality as they do passion. You love whole-heartedly (You Fiery Queen of Wands, you!) and passionately, but there will come a time that you need to realize that other parts of your being need to balance out that passion.
17. LOL! Making it all well is a fight? Hmmm... My initial impression is one that I will have to pm you because I don't think it would be the proper place to post in the open forum. But my deeper thoughts are that this card in this reading doesn't indicate struggle. It indicates using all of your senses. Make use of all the tools (as I've mentioned before) to balance out your stronger tendencies. Let them fight and struggle until an equilibrium is reached. No lasting good ever came from lollipops and ice cream, just lessons learned from struggles that we bested.
This has been my reading. Surprisingly, it didn't take that long. I don't remember what time I started it, but it's now 9:01 pm and I'm finished.
I hope it has been accurate and helpful. If not, please tell me as I can only hone and craft my skill if I know what is wrong and how I misread the cards.
I'll be offering more of these to others so that I can further practice it. You were the first and I thank you for the honor.
*****************************************************************************
Please note that discussions or posts regarding the perversion of the ancient svastika are not acceptable on this particular forum and a request for removal will be sent to the appropriate moderator if any should be posted. The atrocities associated with the "swastika" in recent history are deplorable and reprehensible. It is not my intent to disregard or lessen the symbol's impact to those who were and are effected by The Holocaust by wishing for no discussion of that travesty in this thread. As this is a learning forum and I am Hindu and a tarot lover, I only wish to share the good things and the original and lesser known meanings of this sacred symbol. Please discuss issues not directly related to the spread and how it works in the appropriate forum. Thank you in advance for appreciating the loving and learning spirit in which the spread was created and offered to you.
As you may know, I am Hindu. I love to combine things I love, which leads to me incorporating my spirituality and the cards. I was given (read: I'm not smart enough to come up with these things so God knocks me upside the head) last night to create a spread using the ancient svastika. The svastika goes back to Vedic times and even predates the ancient Egyptian Ankh. It has been and remains a loved symbol of well-being and prosperity for Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and Native Americans. Not being able to verbalize as concisely and eloquently as scholars on the svastika, I give you the article below.
In Sanskrit, the proper spelling of the word swastika is svastika. Sanskrit has no 'w'. Literally, the word svastika is a statement of affirmation, "It is!" "Life is good!" "There is value" "There is meaning!" Svastika is a term that affirms the positive values of life. The word is made of su + as. "As" is the root of the copular verb "to be" of which the third person singular is, "asti," "it is." Su is a prefix used in Sanskrit to intensify meaning in a positive way, thus su+asti means literally, "it really is!" When combined, the 'u' changes into a 'v' thus giving the form svasti. The ending 'ka' makes this verbal form into a noun. This is the linguistic morphology of the word, svastika.
The svastika (from the Sanskrit svastika, "all is well") is a cross with four arms of equal length, with the ends of each arm bent at a right angle. Sometimes dots are added between each arm. The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been found worldwide, but it is especially common in India. Its name comes the Sanskrit words svasti (sv = well; asti = is), meaning good fortune, luck and well-being. The svastika is most commonly used as a charm to bring good fortune (in which case the arms are bent clockwise), but it has a variety of religious meanings as well.
The right-hand svastika is one of the 108 symbols of the god Vishnu as well as a symbol of the sun and of the sun god Surya. The symbol imitates in the rotation of its arms the course taken daily by the sun, which appears in the Northern Hemisphere to pass from east, then south, to west. (It is also a symbol of the sun among Native Americans.)
The left-hand svastika (called a sauvastika) usually represents the terrifying goddess Kali, night and magic. However, this form of the swastika is not "evil" and it is the form most commonly used in Buddhism.
The auspicious symbol of the svastika is very commonly used in Hindu art, architecture and decoration. It can be seen on temples, houses, doorways, clothing, cars, and even cakes. It is usually a major part of the decoration for festivals and special ceremonies like weddings.
Sources
- John Bowker, ed., Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions(2000).
- "swastika." Encyclopædia Britannica (2007). Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- Swastika - Wikipedia (January 2007)
www.religionfacts.com
www.sanskrit.org
[size=+1] The Spread![/size]
It turns out that I subconsciously chose to to use the left-handed svastika! It makes sense as the left side is associated with heart and the feminine, and also is associated with one of my ishta devatas (beloved deities) Kali. Kali only terrifies those who don't understand her (as does the svastika). Kali is usually depicted holding a man's severed head, looking crazy and bloodthirsty. The cutting off of the head represents the removal of the ego, which Hindus believe is all that keeps us from Enlightenment (all karma and adharmic deeds are a result of the selfish ego).
This spread came to me last night. It was only a matter of minutes before I had it worked out. The spread is pretty large (17 cards) and covers all aspects of life (except finance) and will take time and energy to read. It is easily adaptable to include finances (an important query for many querents, but not so much for me) or any other subjects you or your querent wish to cover. The spread starts with the "core" cards and expands from there. At the center, you have The Self. Surrounding, you have heart (affairs of the heart), spirit, feeling, and mind. From there the spread beautifully fans out to complete the svastika by adding three cards to each "core category". I can explain it in words, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand of them, so please refer to the spread diagram I have attached.
I will clearly define in this post the three positions for each core value. We'll take The Heart. You have The Heart and three cards that address it. They are: What You See; What You Don't see; Making All Well. This is pretty self-explanatory except for the last one (Making All Well). Its position bridges the gap between what you see about your affairs of the heart and what you don't see, and thusly makes it all well.
It was very difficult to do our traditional AT spread diagram, so I made a graphic in Photoshop that I have attached below. I have also attached photos of what an unadulterated svastika looks like and how beautiful and well loved a symbol it is in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions.
I will post a sample reading once I read with this spread. I do not want to read for myself with it, as I know me too well and may be biased as to the reading. I will post for an exchange for feedback in the reading exchange and then with the querent's permission I will post the reading here to let you see its efficacy and how it works (we shall all see!).
[size=+1]SAMPLE READING, SHARED WITH THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF KITTYSASHIMI. [/size]
The Deck: World Spirit
Your Cards:
1. Two of Cups, Rx
2. Sage of Swords (King)
3. Three of Cups Rx
4. Nine of Swords
5. The Emperor Rx
6. The Sun
7. Five of Cups
8. Sybil of Swords, Rx (Queen)
9. Sybil of Wands (Queen)
10. The Magician
11. Four of Cups, Rx
12. Seven of Swords
13. The Chariot
14. The Hermit
15. Ace of Pentacles
16. Three of Pentacles
17. Five of Wands
1. The Self - This is a snapshot of how you are feeling right now about yourself as a whole person, the entire package. The card tells me that things aren't as happy as they could be. You aren't as whole a being as you wish to be. I feel that you may be relying on someone else to "complete" you.
2. The Heart - The Sage of Swords tells me that your partner is very intelligent and a thinker. He balances out your strong emotions. I feel he may be a bit macabre, a bit dark. That's not a bad thing. He definitely has your heart on a string (you'll forgive me but the card shows the king's sword penetrating a yoni shaped wreath) and is a good lover. He again, I feel is dark and swarthy (physically, this time) and may have a propensity to grow beards?
3. Spiritual matters are not receiving the love and care they deserve. Maybe you were disillusioned and chose to distance yourself from the path you were on for a while. You still love and care for it, but it's much less than what you thought you did in the past. I see a woman trying to bring you back to a spiritual path but you are a bit resistant right now.
4. Emotionally, you're sad right now. All the "core" cards (cards 1-5) are *screaming* this at me. Not mope around crying all the time said, but you're longing. You're longing for the fulfillment of your idea of what your life should be. Your emotions are kind of running the gamut. From highs to lows and no plateaus. If the nine of swords is any indication of the state of affairs right now, you're in a valley.
5. Ha! So funny to me (not ha-ha) that the Emperor - the epitome of intellect and wisdom in the cards shows up in your Intellect position. The cards amaze me. The Emperor is reversed, telling me that matters of intellect (your day to day job, paying the bills, shopping for groceries, the "logistics" of life) are not receiving your full attention.
These have been the core cards, the cards that should tell me or any reader of the spread what your life looks like this very minute in time. A snapshot, if you will. Now for the details of each.
THE MIND
6. Mind - What you see - The Sun tells me you only see or are concentrating only on the bright shiny happy things that are fun to deal with in "logistical" life.
7. Mind - What you don't see - Five of Cups tells me that what you don't see is that if you don't stop just handling what you don't "mind" doing or like doing, that you're going to regret it. Things will have a snowball effect what was once a little issue will be compounded and rolled up into others and before you know it an avalanche of mundane worldly tasks overwhelms you and demands 100% of your waking hours to clear up.
8. How to bridge the two (what you see and don't see) and make all well is very clear to me - there is a woman in your life that is very precise, analytical, and she is very exacting. It may be your mother - it is definitely an older woman. Ask her for her help - she won't coddle you and will be "Look, Kittysashimi, you need to do laundry on this day, get the toilet scrubbed on this one, while the dishwasher is running you can take out the trash, etc., etc., ad infinitium.
FEELING
9. I believe you are a very emotional person, KittySashimi. You see clearly that you have passion, drive, ambition, and energy. The Sybil of Wands is *you*, not another woman in your life. You are one to look at your life through the lens of emotion. In the World Spirit card the Queen is holding her torch and looking at its flame with great admiration and love.
10. The Magician tells me that you don't see that you can balance out your state of being by making use of all the tools that life offers and that you definitely have at your disposal. I like a definition I read by Rachel Pollack - in the traditional RWS card he is standing in flowers reminding us that emotion needs to be grounded in physical reality to get any meaning from it.
11. Making it all well - The four of cups is reversed. This tells me that you definitely need to put to use those other tools I mentioned (intellect, heart, spirituality) to balance out your strong Fire Energy. It also tells me that you have the enthusiasm and spirit to do just that!
SPIRIT
12. What you see clearly is that your idea of a spiritual path or religious institution has crumbled to bits and you are slowly picking up the pieces of that and putting things back together. The WS Seven of Swords is particularly cold, dark, and sombre. You're not feeling a lot of love right now where spiritual matters are concerned.
13. What you don't see is that you have a conscious choice to remain in the state you're in or pick up what you liked about the path you were on and discard the others and build upon that. The WS Chariot is especially happy, the Charioteer is smiling broadly, he is a happy man, and the zebras at the reins are even looking at each other and smiling. I think you are not seeing the good things that are buried underneath your disappointment and disillusionment. Look closely, they are there.
14. OH THE CARDS! They AMAZE ME. Have I said that? To have The Hermit fall in the position of the way to make all well is simply divine! What it is telling me is that you need to retreat into yourself and think about spiritual matters. Don't look outside for any help in this quest, all the answers and the key to your happiness in this part of your life reside in you. You need to take time and really think things over about whatever the issue was that happened. Pull the parts that brought you joy and keep them, you can discard the rest. You may be having the notion that with spirituality, it's "all or nothing". This is simply not the case.
HEART
15. What you see clearly in affairs of the heart I am unsure of. I have to be honest with you. Aces are tough for this reader. Yeah, yeah, we all know they mean a new beginning, but how? What you see clearly is that each day is a new day for affairs of the heart. A time to start over, or it may signify that each day brings the blossoming of "new" love for you. Maybe each day with your partner is like a new day?
16. What you don't see is that love and affairs of the heart take work. They are a work in progress. They take as much intellect, spirit, and spirituality as they do passion. You love whole-heartedly (You Fiery Queen of Wands, you!) and passionately, but there will come a time that you need to realize that other parts of your being need to balance out that passion.
17. LOL! Making it all well is a fight? Hmmm... My initial impression is one that I will have to pm you because I don't think it would be the proper place to post in the open forum. But my deeper thoughts are that this card in this reading doesn't indicate struggle. It indicates using all of your senses. Make use of all the tools (as I've mentioned before) to balance out your stronger tendencies. Let them fight and struggle until an equilibrium is reached. No lasting good ever came from lollipops and ice cream, just lessons learned from struggles that we bested.
This has been my reading. Surprisingly, it didn't take that long. I don't remember what time I started it, but it's now 9:01 pm and I'm finished.
I hope it has been accurate and helpful. If not, please tell me as I can only hone and craft my skill if I know what is wrong and how I misread the cards.
I'll be offering more of these to others so that I can further practice it. You were the first and I thank you for the honor.
*****************************************************************************
Please note that discussions or posts regarding the perversion of the ancient svastika are not acceptable on this particular forum and a request for removal will be sent to the appropriate moderator if any should be posted. The atrocities associated with the "swastika" in recent history are deplorable and reprehensible. It is not my intent to disregard or lessen the symbol's impact to those who were and are effected by The Holocaust by wishing for no discussion of that travesty in this thread. As this is a learning forum and I am Hindu and a tarot lover, I only wish to share the good things and the original and lesser known meanings of this sacred symbol. Please discuss issues not directly related to the spread and how it works in the appropriate forum. Thank you in advance for appreciating the loving and learning spirit in which the spread was created and offered to you.
